OMG! I had such a wonderful time today!!!
I finally reconnected with Marilyn Stevens and met her husband Paul (aka Guido) at the same time.
What a hoot!
We’re kindred spirits! (My opinion; hope it’s theirs, too!)
- We’re all writers and editors.
- We’re all animal lovers.
- We’re all appalled by the same things (figure that one out for yourself).
And yes, I remembered (at the last possible moment) to get a selfie with them so you can put faces to names for those of you who don’t already know them. (Even my landlady knows them. It’s a small world!)
Marilyn and Paul/aka Guido
Let me write everything down right away before I start forgetting details…
Before I headed out, I wrote out my request to the bus driver in Spanish, letting him know that I wanted to go to “the goat house” — the house on the left that was one bus stop after the big log house on the right. I wrote that I had never been there before and didn’t know when to pull the cord to let him know where to stop. I tucked that and my bus fare into my breast pocket to keep it close and dry while I waited for the bus to pick me up.
THE BUS RIDE TO UPPER EL CAJON
The bus was scheduled to be at my nearest bus stop at 11:15 or 11:20, so naturally (me being me) I was there twenty minutes early to be sure I didn’t miss it.
I carried my umbrella along “just in case” because the sky was overcast and rain was forecast for this morning.
As soon as I got to the bus stop, I needed to use it because it began to mist heavily.
Moments later, the sky opened up and rain began to come down in torrents! I was very glad I had bought a big umbrella in Grecia because my Seattle one would not have been anywhere near adequate.
The bus was “late”
The bus didn’t reach me until 11:30. When it did, I paid the fare and handed the driver my note. He read it carefully and nodded to me and then sat it down beside the coin box.
(FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, a few minutes before that, another bus came up the road and I tried to flag it down, then realized it was only for students. It was a school bus. Blue, as I recall.)
As we finally started up the hill in the bus, my phone rang. It was Marilyn. I answered it, saying “I’m on the way. The bus just got here. I’m on it now.”
She said, “Oh! It’s cloudy up here in the heights, so I just tried to flag down a school bus, thinking you were on it!” and laughed.
I laughed and said, “I tried to flag it down when it passed here! We aren’t far behind it. I’ll be along soon!”
We wended our way up the hills — certainly at least a thousand feet higher than where I am on Calle Esteban Salas. Upper El Cajon is in the cloud forest. It looked like heaven up there: starkly beautiful sheets of white clouds!
I Jumped the Gun
As soon as I saw the big log house on the right, I said to the driver, “Aqui! Aqui!” He stopped the bus and I thanked him in Spanish and then hopped off.
Ahem…
The bus driver proceeded up the road and motioned to Marilyn that he had left me “back there” when he saw her standing on her porch looking at his chariot with such eager anticipation! LOL!
At about the same moment, I called Marilyn and said, “I’m here! Across the street from the log house!”
She said, “You got off one stop too soon. I’ll come get you.”
I said, “No, I can walk. I think I see the pipe that’s next to your house from here.”
She asked, “Are you sure? Do you have an umbrella?”
I said, “Yes, and I’m on my way.”
She said, “I’ll start down and meet you halfway.”
The slope up to her place from the log house was very gradual, not a challenge at all, and it helped me reach my 7K steps goal today, too.
One of her dogs — Luna, their little mostly white official goodwill ambassador — reached me first. I said hello and petted her. Marilyn wasn’t far behind. We embraced and walked back to their home, where we were greeted by their goat Oliver, their big bruin of a dog (Henry?) and one of their cats, Ringo. They have another cat (Daisy?) who is more standoffish; she went and hid when I said hello to her. Marilyn also has a “reading supervisor” — a cat named Ernie.
Paul came out briefly to greet me and then went back to finishing a scene he was writing (he’s turning his three books into screenplays) while Marilyn showed me their back yard and their customary view of the clouds that surround them much of the day this time of year. (You can catch a glimpse of the cloudy background in the selfie I showed you above.)
COSTA RICAN COFFEE
Marilyn’s first question to me after we got back into the house from the back yard was, “Would you like some coffee?”
I told her I don’t drink coffee and that my mother thought I must have been switched in the hospital because I was marinated in coffee the whole time I was inside her! She laughed and then suggested tea. I reconsidered and responded, “No, you know what? I’m in Costa Rica! It’s high time I drank Costa Rican coffee!”
She responded, “We have a neighbor who grows and harvests it and brings it right to us.” (How’s that for “field fresh?)
I said, “Just pour me a little so I don’t waste it (in case I don’t like it).”
She said, “What do you want in it?”
I said, “Nothing! I want to taste Costa Rican coffee naked!”
She said, “We make it awfully strong.”
I said, “That’s fine.”
She poured me about a quarter cup. I drank a little. My eyebrows ascended on my forehead and my eyes lit up. “I like this! I really do like this — a lot! My mother is probably yelling from heaven, ‘It’s about time!'”
I asked for a full cup then and drank every last drop. It was ABSOLUTELY wonderful! Now I have to buy some Costa Rican coffee because I hear coffee is good for you and I want more of this region’s gift from the gods!
MORE HIGHLIGHTS
We sat down in the living room and proceeded to chat for a good 45 minutes, discovering all of the many things and sensibilities that we have in common. She told me she has read my book WOMB MAN and that she had enjoyed and resonated with many aspects of it. (We share some celebrity idols including Roy Rogers.) She said she wants to read LET NO DAY DAWN THAT THE ANIMALS CANNOT SHARE next, so I suggested that she get the extended edition because it has three times as many stories in it as the earlier versions of it do.
And let me give you a link for Marilyn’s book,
Marilyn told me that she and Paul had been ESL teachers for six and seven years respectively and had both been actors, and that, although she is an introvert by nature, her acting skills gave her the latitude she needed to portray a gregarious, confident individual as a speaker and educator. I totally understood, because I’m the same way. I “act” normal (more outgoing and gregarious) very readily when it’s required of me, but it isn’t natural. It’s an adapted behavior.
After about 30 minutes, Marilyn brought out a light lunch that just blew me away. It was little rolls of ham (I think) wrapped around spinach and figs and dressed in fig sauce. OMG! I have seldom tasted anything better in my life. We also had some artesan toast.
Not long after we finished eating, Paul came out (he had eaten earlier) and we all chatted for about a half hour longer about his or their writing, acting, working in New York and Hollywood, and his neighborhood band that gets together to jam and have fun at a nearby wellknown establishment whose name I can’t recall right now. I told him I’d love to come watch them jam sometime and they invited me to go with them in the very near future. I said, “Oh, heck yes. I’m in!” They will pick me up on the way in to the gig and bring me back afterward.
Paul also suggested that he might suggest an improv night to his gang and if they agree, I’m invited to come along and engage in that way, too. That’s waaaayyy outside my comfort zone, so I said, “Absolutely! I would love to!” because whenever anything innocuous scares me from now on, I’m going to do it until I get over it!
Oh! And one more thing. Before we got into their vehicle to come back down the mountain, Marilyn pointed out the “Oliver” hoofmarks across the expanse of its hood/bonnet. She said, “He did that while he was still young and spry enough to get up there!” I should have taken a picture…
MORE GOOD NEWS OF THE MORNING
When I went walking this morning, I ran across Geraldo again, working in a neighbor’s yard. I greeted him with a fist bump and asked his permission to take a selfie with him. So here he is. I saw him again later on this morning while I waited for the bus to carry me up to the Stevens’ place. He’s a gem.
MORE HOLIDAY TREASURES FOR SALE
My landlady Cat (a wonderful woman!) has made some more lovely holiday items that she’s hoping to sell to bolster her family’s income. If you’re local and looking for holiday decorations for yourself or as gifts, take a look! Let me know if you see one or more that you like and I’ll have her set them aside for you. I can bring them to you next time we get together.
All in all, today I had one of my best days ever here in Costa Rica. I am looking forward to introducing Lisa to all my friends when she gets down here. I have no doubt she’ll fit right in!
Thank you, Marilyn and Paul, for an extraordinary afternoon!